Rural, city folks welcome modern conveniences
By Sarah Henning
The Forum - 08/22/1999

Toilet seat cover: up or down? Toilet paper: over or under?

These are the great debates of the modern household, but they are inconsequential when compared with the real problems of bathrooms a century ago.

Then, there were no bathrooms. And there were no toilet seat covers because there were no toilets.

Often there wasn't toilet paper, either. The debate was usually corn cobs vs. the Sears catalog, proving the good old days were rough when it came time to go to the bathroom.

Though the modern toilet was patented in England in 1778, it wasn't a standard appliance in rural Minnesota and North Dakota until the 1960s, according to Bruce Jaster, director of environmental services for Clay County.

Lack of proper sewer systems, sanitation knowledge and money kept many people from owning a porcelain throne.

Instead people built outhouses, or backhouses, which were small, shackish buildings separate from the house. They provided a hole for waste, but little comfort, and certainly no satisfying flush.

Just ask 67-year-old Doris Anderson of rural Hawley, who politely says outdoor toilets were "not very nice."

"I remember when the pile got too high, you had to knock it off with a stick so it didn't touch your butt."

Outhouse users were at the mercy of the elements. Often in the winter, the snow was too high or it was too cold to get to the outhouse, and the only option was a pail in the house, says Anderson.

Seventy-nine-year-old Lawrence Legler of Hawley says even if you could push a path to the outdoor toilet, it was no treat. "We went out and got back in real fast. You didn't do any meditating out there."

Then in summer, Anderson says the outhouses became "very stinky" and often attracted flies - just one of many health hazards these primitive privies posed.

Laws regulating sewage drainage didn't hit the books in Minnesota until the 1960s and '70s. Before that, Jaster says it was common to drain raw sewage right into the Red River, which at that time was a popular place for recreation.

"Out of sight, out of mind; that was the idea," Jaster says.

Often outhouses were built close to the drinking water supply, risking nitrate, bacteria and viral contamination, Jaster says.

"And then there was just the risk of falling in."

Jaster says he can recall many nights when the Halloween prank of tipping outhouses ended with someone deep in doo doo, so to speak.

No one was tp-ing houses on those Halloween nights. Though toilet paper was invented in the 1800s, it wasn't always available or affordable.

Anderson says most people used the Sears catalog. "You tried not to be one of the last few people using the magazine, because then there were only shiny pages left. Before you could use it, you had to crumple it up so it was soft."

Anderson said corn cobs and peach-packing paper were also normal substitutes for wipes.

The inconveniences didn't end there.

It wasn't unusual to discover animals like snakes had taken refuge inside the outhouse.

Eighty-six-year-old Marge Krause of rural Hawley says once her brother-in-law found out that outhouses can really stink.

"He was all dressed up for a dance. But he had to go to the bathroom first. So he goes out to the outhouse, opens the door, and there was a skunk, who wasn't too happy.

"Needless to say, he didn't make it to the dance."

Outhouses are still used, but not to any great extent. Jasper says every year his office gets a couple requests to put outhouses in rural areas, especially at lake cabins.

Minnesota Rule 7080 administered by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency allows outhouses with certain restrictions concerning depth of the hole, septic tanks, water tables and drain fields.

But Anderson says she would never go back to the outhouse days.

"With every invention, life has gotten a little better.

"And toilets were a godsend."